A MAGA lawmaker who said he would “love” to see the crude letter President Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein backed out when offered the chance by a reporter just seconds later.
In a moment when MAGA fantasy clashed with political reality, Missouri Congressman Eric Burlison insisted he wanted to see the letter right up until he was offered the chance.
“I’ve not [seen the document], but I would love to see it like, matched with his handwriting,” Burlison told CNN’s Manu Raju on Capitol Hill.
However, given the chance to see the incriminating sketch of the female form, Burlison chickened out. “Here’s the letter if you wanna look,” Raju told him.
“Yeah, I don’t, I don’t wanna see it,” said Burlison, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, the hardline conservative group closely tied to Trump’s agenda. He was not alone in his refusal to engage with the latest twist in the story. The Wall Street Journal released the letter, complete with a signature identical to Trump’s, on Monday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt kicked off the MAGA counter-offensive, calling it “FAKE NEWS,” before Eric Trump declared, “I can tell you my father does not sketch out cartoon drawings.” The president himself, of course, has said he didn’t sign the document.
Burlison also found distractions by platforming spooky videos from a subcommittee hearing into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), the military’s term for UFOs
Republican lawmakers and Trump cabinet members have been challenged about the document, provided to the House Oversight Committee by the Epstein Estate, on Capitol Hill. Almost all of them have refused to engage.
“The president said he did not sign it, so I take the president at his word,” Kentucky Rep. James Comer told Raju. Echoing this sentiment, Ohio’s Rep.Jim Jordan says he “trusts the president.”
“I just don’t buy it,” Rep. Tim Burchett added, saying he believes political opponents or bad actors could have falsified the document.
Speaker Mike Johnson, meanwhile, was asked by another reporter if he believes Trump sent the note. “I don’t,” he responded. “They say it’s not.”
During a White House press briefing, Leavitt said the administration would support a professional handwriting expert reviewing the sexually explicit note.
One professional graphologist, Emma Bache, told Sky News in the U.K. that the signature “absolutely” belongs to Trump. “It is very much the signature he had in the 2000s. I can absolutely say it is Donald Trump’s,” she said.
Burlison has been contacted for comment.
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